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THEPAGETURNING
After a tumultuous 2009, NAREIT Chair
Debra Cafaro and other REIT execs look ahead
to challenges and opportunities in 2010
At REIT World 2009: NAREIT’s Annual Convention For All Things REIT
held in Phoenix at the end of the year, there was a prevailing sense of relief among
attendees — relief that the financial crises affecting REITs had seemingly passed
and that the focus would once again shift to core business issues and related
strategies going forward.
As the REIT and publicly traded real estate industry begins to turn the page
on perhaps its most challenging period, REIT magazine spoke with NAREIT
Chair Debra Cafaro (who is also chairman, president and CEO of Ventas) and a
number of other leading REIT CEOs across all sectors to gauge their opinions
on three important questions:
• What is the main lesson learned from the crisis?
• What role will REITs come to play in the market going forward?
• What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing REITs in
different sectors?
The answers indicate that industry leaders are proud of what REITs have
been able to demonstrate through the crisis and confident that the REIT approach
is sound. However, REIT executives are still cautious that there are significant
market challenges to overcome in the coming years. For more insights from many of
these, and other, leading REIT executives, be sure also to visit the
video library at REIT.com.
